Hundreds strip off in London and Manchester for World Naked Bike Ride

Passsers-by cheer on nude riders as they take to city streets in the sunshine in annual protest ride

Cyclists across the UK have stripped off this weekend for the annual World Naked Bike Ride, with hundreds of riders taking to the streets of Manchester and London in the nude and Edinburgh and Brighton also scheduled to host the event.

Founded in 2004 with a dress code of “bare as you dare,” the World Naked Bike Ride seeks to highlight the fragility of the human body, as well as acting as a protest against oil dependency and car-centric transport policies.

Now held in more than 120 cities globally, Manchester’s Ride took place on Friday evening, and London yesterday and Brighton today.

A ride was also planned for Edinburgh yesterday, but so far we haven’t seen anything on social media or in the press to confirm it went ahead.

Some riders took the opportunity to pay tribute to the victims of last month’s terrorist bombing at the Manchester Arena by painting a bee symbol, or black and yellow stripes, on their bodies.

One, Becca Warren from Stretford, told the newspaper: “I’ve done this event almost every year. This year we wanted to go with a Manchester bee theme to pay tribute and to celebrate Manchester. And bees are important to our existence.”

Another rider whose body was decorated with bee symbols, Withington resident Joe Smith, said: “We want to pay tribute to this great city.”

The event in London had seven separate state points that converged at Westminster Bridge.

Organisers had said beforehand that the ride had been cleared in advance with the police, adding that “contrary to popular belief, since the Sexual Offences Act 2003, in England nakedness is not illegal unless you are doing it intending to alarm or distress someone – which clearly is not the intention of WNBR.”

As in Manchester, the riders were cheered on by passers-by, many of whom were surprised to see hundreds of naked cyclists flash by, reports the London Evening Standard, with some taking to social media to share their reaction.

One said: “Just witnessed a group on a naked bike ride through London. It was quite magical in its own mad way.”

Organisers of the London ride said afterwards: “Well done everyone. Thanks to all marshals. That was the BIGGEST and BEST #WNBR #London ever! Huge numbers. Sunny. Good spirited. Fun!

Bristol, Canterbury and Southampton have already hosted their legs of this year’s World Naked Bike Ride, with events still to be held in a number of other towns and cities across the UK, as shown below

Born in Scotland, Simon moved to London aged seven and now lives in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds with his miniature schnauzer, Elodie. He fell in love with cycling one Saturday morning in 1994 while living in Italy when Milan-San Remo went past his front door. A daily cycle commuter in London back before riding to work started to boom, he's been news editor at road.cc since 2009. Handily for work, he speaks French and Italian. He doesn't get to ride his Colnago as often as he'd like, and freely admits he's much more adept at cooking than fettling with bikes.